Monday, December 20, 2010

The Government's Spirit of Christmas

When people choose to decorate their houses or private property with Christmas lights or Santa Claus or whatever decoration, I don't really care. To each his own, yeah? Whatever floats their boat. But when the government joins in with these seasonal shenanigans, once again, I feel that I need to step in and make people aware why this is wrong.

It goes against the supposed Christmas message

Jesus was born in a manger. This is supposedly to teach Christians the value of simplicity. And being that Christmas is supposedly about the birth of Jesus, they should really consider what the "belen" they decorate is symbolizing. Christmas isn't supposed to be about flashy and colorful lights or who has the biggest tree. Actually these things almost have nothing to do with Christmas at all. There is nothing Christian about decorating a tree or putting blinking lights on walls. Governments should learn a thing or two about the concept of a leader being born into a manger.

It goes against the separation of church and state

There are many citizens, even Christian sectors who do not believe in or celebrate Christmas at all. And so for a government body such as a city hall, it's quite an insult to use taxpayer's money and impose these religious decorations and traditions. So for the city hall of Muntinlupa to even be proud of their giant Christmas tree or the "belen" and other religious symbols or icons, it is insulting and unconstitutional.

It is wasteful spending

It doesn't matter if they used cheap driftwood, the point is that it is not the role of the government to do these things. It is a useless burden to taxpayers. Without transparency, we won't even know how much was spent, who the suppliers were, how much it increased electric bills, etc. The citizens are clueless and seem to even worship these bureaucrats for giving them the illusion created by flashing lights and giant trees. To think that the budget used for this nonsense could have been used in other things.

You see, I live in Muntinlupa. I am directly affected by the budget allocations and decisions (and stealing) of the bureaucrats here. They are the ones who have control over the traffic enforcers, the public roads, the police who are supposed to protect me, the appointed bureaucrats that give me my public documents, requirements, and red tapes.

I'm sure some of you might think that the giant Christmas tree issue is petty. I think otherwise. I think we should be outraged by these kinds of unconstitutional wasteful expenditures. I think that we should demand for transparency and information. We should rethink our definitions of what the role of the government really should be.